If you’re a business owner looking to reward one of your employees for long service there are a number of tax incentives and obligations you must consider.

Rewarding employees with cash gifts is taxable

By rewarding your clients with cash the gift will be subject to tax. The HMRC does however allow certain gifts to make in recognition of long service, subject to some conditions. These conditions include:

· Must be for 20 or more years of service

· Is not cash or vouchers that can be converted into cash

· Does not cost employer more than £50 for each year of service

· Where more than one long-service gift is made to the same employee the exemption can only apply if there has been at least 10 years between each gift.

If you would like to provide your employee with a gift of monetary value

One way to give your employee a gift of monetary value without actually doing so is letting them choose something they would usually buy- such as a season ticket to a football team.

Trivial Benefits Exemption

If you have chosen a gift for your employee but want to add further monetary value, you could consider using the trivial benefits exemption. The exemption is restricted to non-cash awards, and a maximum of £50. However, it can be applied more than once. Therefore you could, for instance, buy an employee vouchers redeemable at a restaurant each month.

Pension contributions

Given that the employee has worked for you for over 20 years, it is likely that your employee is approaching or over 55. This means that you could consider making a pension contribution, of which 25% would be tax free when accessed. If they are over 55 the contribution can be accessed immediately. Therefore by making a contribution of £4000 to their pension £1000 will be tax-free.

Nationwide, it is becoming more and more difficult be granted an appropriate-sized mortgage. The number of people going self-employed within the UK is increasing every year, with self-employed workers now accounting for 15% of the working population (Jones, 2018).

There are a number of problems currently associated with being self-employed, i.e. the pension crisis and getting a mortgage. This article focuses on how to get a mortgage as a self-employed individual. Research has shown that 30% of self-employed homeowners feel that the mortgage process is biased (McDowell, 2018).

As a self-employed consultant you are likely to have several running costs and expenses. Theses costs and expenses should be taken away from your business income to work out your profits. Not all expenses are allowable for tax purposes, it is therefore important to be aware of you what you are and aren’t allowed in order to save money against tax and avoid a HMRC enquiry.

Chancellor Phillip Hammond’s release of the 2018 Autumn Budget revealed a number of changes for small business owners. Below is a brief summary of some of the changes small business owners should be aware of.

Currently there are over 2,200 families on the waiting list for Kensington and Chelsea social housing. Which compared to the 11,000 houses currently available, presents a huge issue for councils finding the families accommodation. The council has already spent its entire reserves of £230m on new housing for the Grenfell tower survivors, whom all fall into their borough.

Stamp duty is an area of much dispute and change in UK tax. Currently, you usually pay Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) on increasing portions of your property’s price above £125,000 (for residential properties, like a house of flat).

The amount of Stamp Duty you owe can vary depending on whether or not the property is your first home and the purchase is £500,000.

Statutory accounts (commonly known as annual accounts) are financial reports that must be prepared and filed at the end of each financial year. For UK private limited companies statutory accounts are a compulsory part of the tax year.

As a business owner it is important to be aware of your companies tax obligations and liabilities. There are a number of taxes that small businesses are required to pay. Below is our breakdown of the taxes you should know about as a business owner:

Inspired off of the Jean Royère’s furniture designs we went to see yesterday (pictured above) in the spirit of London Design Week, we have put together a brief guide for our clients on some of the expenses you can claim as a furniture designer.

There are generally much expenses incurred while working as a furniture designer than other freelance professionals. For instance, the cost of raw materials and machinery. Raw materials and any equipment required to assemble the furniture are all claimable against tax, assuming that you are buying both.